Coop For Strongman

By Kleinheider Posted on May 27, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Sean Braisted, after listening to a presentation given by Congressman Jim Cooper, notes the correlation between our system of government and our economic problems:

Perhaps this is a problem inherent within a democratic republic. Politicians are making decisions based on the ‘feelings’ of their constituents rather than hard-headed statistical data. As an example, China wouldn’t dare think about mothballing a multi-billion dollar project like Yucca Mountain because a few local residents had irrational fears…yet in our system of government if enough people have irrational fears, they are then justified by political leaders who put re-election above the good of our nation as a whole.

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Tags: Budget, Democracy, Generation FUBAR, Jim Cooper, The End of The World As We Know It  

The FONCE Is Dead

By Kleinheider Posted on May 14, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Fifteen million dollars worth of “technical correction” just went out the window according to John Rodgers:

The provision would have eliminated a tax break for commercial real estate holdings of Family Owned Non-Corporate Entities, or FONCEs. A limited liability company is a non-corporate entity.

Business lobbyists and some like-minded lawmakers have targeted that section of the Bredesen administration’s so-called “technical corrections bill,” saying it would be a tax increase on some small businesses.

The administration says it would only hurt wealthy families.

But apparently the business lobby won the fight as the provision was taken out of the technical corrections bill today.

SEE ALSO: Whitehouse on FONCE
Tom Humphrey
WPLN
Andy Sher

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Tags: Budget, family corporations, FONCE, Phil Bredesen, Technical Corrections Bill, Tennessee  

TNGOP Engages In “Class Warfare” Over Budget

By Kleinheider Posted on May 7, 2008 at 2:39 pm

GOP Communications Czar Bill Hobbs throws a little dust on the Governor for announcing employee layoffs for workaday bureaucrats while leaving his top dog political appointees’ pay raises intact:

“Upper management making out like bandits and getting lavish party facilities while the rank-and-file stand to lose everything.Gov. Bredesen promised voters he’d run Tennessee like a business. We didn’t know he meant Enron,” said Hobbs.

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Tags: Bill Hobbs, Bredesen, Budget, layoffs, Matt Kisber, Republicans, Tennessee, TNGOP  

Budget Breakdown

By Kleinheider Posted on at 12:18 pm

Tom Humphrey breaks down the proposals the Governor outlined in his press conference today at the Capitol:

Gov. Phil Bredesen is proposing elimination of 2,011 state government jobs, roughly 5 percent of the executive branch work force.

He’s hopeful that most of the reductions can occur through voluntary buyouts.

The governor said in a press conference this morning the layoffs will provide about $64 million of the $468 million in cuts needed to trim his original budget plan, outlined earlier this year.

The $468 million figure is the low end of the shortfall projected by the State Funding Board, whose economists said it could grow to as much as $580 million.

Bredesen said his planned cuts would need to be revisited if the most optimistic deficit projection falls through.

He said he has asked higher education to make $55 million in cuts but will let the University of Tennessee and Board of Regents systems decide specifics.

SEE ALSO:
John Rodgers
Andy Sher
WSMV
AP
Cara Kumari
WKRN

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Tags: Budget, government jobs, higher eduication, job cuts, layoffs, Phil Bredesen, press conference, state employee